Ronnie Radke’s Accuser Speaks (Exclusive)

Last week, a Salt Lake City man named Levi Rounds publicly accused Ronnie Radke of sexual assault, following the Falling In Reverse performance at the Murray Theater June 3. In a Facebook post, Rounds alleged the singer “gang raped someone really important to me last night (because that’s how real men treat women, with their bodyguard as backup) and tossed her onto the curb.” In subsequent comments, he instructed readers to “spread the word and share the post. He tried to ruin a life, let’s try even harder to ruin an already shit career.” Later, the alleged victim took to her own Facebook page, thanking Rounds for “putting that monster on blast.” In subsequent posts, she said she had been raped twice, and that her alleged attackers posted bail. AP reached out to both Radke and his accuser, Katelynd “Kacee” Boswell. Radke responded via statement. Boswell did an interview with NY Daily News, which she shared on Facebook. On Monday, June 8, Radke filed a civil suit against Boswell for defamation. Rounds is not named in the civil suit, as the complaint notes that Radke believes him to have “been misled by Boswell’s lies.” This past Monday, shortly before news of the lawsuit broke, Boswell spoke with West Coast Editor Ryan J. Downey by phone. The following Q&A was edited for length and clarity only.

Photo by Brandon Cruz

Can you walk us through the events of that night? There's a lot of conflicting information out there. Levi’s post, the NY Daily News, Ronnie's statement —
KACEE BOSWELL: Ronnie's statement is a direct conflict with what the witness had to say to law enforcement. He doesn't want to do any press. But I can tell you what he said to them.

You don’t have to be any more explicit than you’re comfortable with, but since I’m talking to you, I’d like to hear what happened [from you]. You both acknowledge you had some kind of prior relationship in the past.
Ronnie actually told the witness that he had never met me before in his life. The witness saw Ronnie leave me on the side of the road and came over to me. Then Ronnie and [his bodyguard] came back. The witness was like, “What's going on?” And they were just like, “We don't know this girl. She was acting crazy. We didn't know what to do. She was going to come to the bar with us. But, like, she told us where she lived and we didn't really know where she lived so we just dropped her here.” The witness was like, “OK, well, have you guys called the cops?” And they said, “Yes.” Then Ronnie started yelling at me, and said, “You have no idea how much trouble you've gotten me into, Kacee.” Then they got in the car and sped off again. So we waited on the curb for the police to show up. They didn't. Finally this police car drove by and the witness flagged it down. [The cops said] “We have no record of anyone calling the police.” That police officer stayed and called the police for us. That's when EMS came and took me to the hospital. [In a text message, the witness told AP he saw “three gentlemen leaving her on the side of the road, extremely disoriented and intoxicated,” noting, “I did believe Ronnie’s story and allowed them to leave the scene before the police arrived.” – Ed.]

You came to the show to see the band and because you knew Ronnie, right?
Yeah. He gave me two backstage passes. I still have the other one. He texted me [inviting me to the show] and I was like, “Oh, yeah, just send me some passes.” I have no shortage of girlfriends who are huge fans of his, but I ended up going by myself.

I read something alleging Ronnie’s bodyguard assaulted you during the show.
I didn't say that.

Were you misquoted? I thought I saw that somewhere.
I didn't say that. I don't want to get into explicit detail about what happened with Ronnie and I. My lawyers have told me not to. I've been completely barraged by text messages and phone calls saying I should kill myself, saying that I’m too ugly to be raped. I've been accused of extorting him for money and all sorts of things. My statement to those people is: “Wait until the rape kit comes back” and the police report gets sorted out with the witness. The witness did say that he was going to talk to the police and tell the truth, which completely contradicts Ronnie’s statement [to AP]. [The witness tells AP he is cooperating with police, but refused to speculate as to whether a crime was committed. He indicated he will decline any future press requests. – Ed.]

The NY Daily News wrote, “A 25-year-old woman is claiming Falling In Reverse singer Ronnie Radke and several others forced themselves on her sexually.”
I never said “several others.”

“Gang rape” is definitely in the first sentence. Where did they get that?
Where I think they took that from is those other news sources, like Metal Sucks and whatever, saying that I accused them of gang rape. I never accused anyone of gang rape. With all due respect, I'm not willing to go through a play-by-play of the night. But I never said that anybody gang-raped me.

You wrote that Radke and his bodyguard posted bail. Would you like to clarify?
Well yeah I would like to, as best as possible. At the hospital, a Murray Police Department officer asked me if I knew exactly where they were. I told her that they [had played] the Murray Theater. So they did the whole rape kit thing, which is so embarrassing, and just so degrading. They had given me some pain medicine. I was at the hospital for over two hours. The officer came back and said they had caught them right before the bus was leaving, which contradicts [what Ronnie and his bodyguard] told the witness, which was that they had to leave right then to get to bus call. So they left me on the side of the road and went to go play pool at a bar. I believe they went to The Woodshed. Somebody from, I guess, Slaves, or whatever band, said that I was with them at the bar, which is absolutely insane, because I wasn't. So they lied about that.

In his tweet, Alex Lyman of Slaves says that he and Ronnie were together before and after the show, till bus call. He doesn't say anything about your whereabouts.
Which is interesting if he's saying he was with him the whole night, because then he would have been with him in the car when they left me on the side of the road.

You've said that car was an Uber.
It was definitely an Uber.

So the Uber driver was a friend of Ronnie’s?
No. The Uber driver was a fan. I'm pretty sure that's against Uber's code of ethics or whatever to just leave some girl on the side of the street.

I read somewhere the car was moving when you were ejected.
No, the car was not moving. They just pulled me out of the car by my arm and like, sat me down, and then got back in the car and sped off. Then as soon as they saw, I guess in their rearview, that someone had gotten out of their car to come and talk to me, they turned around.

The contusions you mentioned on your jaw. That's from the alleged assault?
That was from the assault, yeah. Also, about a week and a half ago, I broke my nose. It had nothing to do with any of this. I read a couple of posts about that. That's just taking it too far. [NY Daily News has since removed “broken nose” from their report – Ed].

Ronnie implied in his statement that you were under the influence.
All of us had been drinking. He accused me of being on a bunch of drugs. I guess they went through my purse and they found some prescribed Adderall. But part of the rape kit is a [toxicology] screen, which I haven't gotten back yet. There shouldn't have been any in my system. If there were, it’s extended release; it would be a small amount, because I had taken it in the morning. So no, I was not completely out of my mind.

Did the alleged assault take place in the bus or in the Uber?
[Sighs]. On the bus.

You have stated today, for the record, that you never said it was a gang rape. But you are saying it was Ronnie and his bodyguard, or it was just Ronnie?
It was Ronnie. I think a comment that I left on my Facebook got misconstrued. I can't remember exactly what it was… I said something along the lines of, “his bodyguard too” [with a] sad face. I should have been more descriptive, like, “He was there.”

Ronnie's bodyguard did not participate and was not present for the assault?
He was there, but he wasn't a participant.

He watched it go down, or he was just on the bus?
He was on the bus.

So he wasn't aware it was happening.
Well sure, he was aware it was happening, but I don't believe he knew what exactly was happening. As I mentioned, Ronnie and I have had sexual relations before. People are saying that because of that, I could just be lying. People are saying I’m trying to extort him. I haven’t asked for a cent. People are saying I’m using this to try to get famous. This is the last thing I would ever want to become famous [for]; the things I care about in my life are my career and my charity work.

What you’re saying is: you were assaulted, got in an Uber with Ronnie and his bodyguard, and then you were dumped on the roadside.
They wanted to head to a bar and I was telling them The Woodshed was too far to go to. Where they dropped me off was close to where I was staying, but they literally just pushed me out of the car. All of this is will come out with the police report, but that's not going to come out for a few days. One in three women have been sexually assaulted and only two percent of rapes get convicted here. So the numbers are definitely not in my favor. Utah is completely [backlogged] with rape kits. I've had a rape kit done in Utah before. The last time I was sexually assaulted, the guy was on the sex offender registry [for] having assaulted people twice before. I'm getting so much harassment online. I've been getting phone calls from people saying they're going to find me and kill me. I've been harassed to the point where I'm depressed as hell and I'm scared as fuck.

Victim shaming is awful. It's a big problem in our culture. We also have Ronnie's bodyguard accused of participating in a gang rape all over social media, but you're telling me right now that he wasn't involved in the actual alleged assault.
Well, I woke up in the morning and everyone had posted all of this stuff, using my name, including things off of my Facebook, explicitly without my permission! Which was so surprising to me, because I'm pretty sure that all over the country you're not allowed to use someone's name unless they give you their permission.

But it’s common for news media to report what’s said in public online postings. And to be fair, [Rounds] did make his posts public and you did thank him for doing so.
My advocate said the first thing I should do is turn my Facebook on to “private.” I had no idea! It's not like I'm good at this kind of thing. [laughs.]

Now you can clarify exactly what you’re saying.
I've been misquoted a lot [and] it's giving people the wrong idea about me. Honestly, I feel like it's going to be a good idea for me to take my social media down for a while and just wait until I've talked to the police officers more and figured that side of things out. I'm going to ask my lawyer to approach news sources that used my name without permission. Even 'though it's already out there and there's not much I can do about it.

You said you aren't out for money. Is the goal here, from a legal standpoint, to press criminal charges, if/when there's sufficient evidence?
Well, absolutely, when there's more evidence. But the goal here is also to go after cyberbullies. There are hundreds of comments and messages that are just terrifying. I've gotten phone calls that are terrifying. I would like to go after cyberbullies as much as possible, because, I'm scared. His fanbase is a bunch of really fervent [teenage] boys who'd do anything for their idol. I feel like my life is in danger. Virtual harassment is a huge epidemic in our country and it does sometimes push people to suicide. Not that I have any suicidal thoughts but I'm definitely in a dark place. I haven't felt this sad in a really long time. Complete strangers are telling me I'm too ugly to be raped. It's terrible.

Have you remained in contact with law enforcement?
Mmm-hmm. I have spoken to detectives. And a local Salt Lake news outlet told me they'd like to talk to me about the cyberbullying. They've agreed not to ask me any explicit questions about the assault. Because I think it's better for me to keep that as much as possible to myself until the police reports come out.

Will you be directing the media to your attorney going forward?
I'm really blessed by who has chosen to represent me. It's someone I've worked with on some feminism stuff before. She's really wonderful. I'm going to keep [her identity] under wraps until we start doing things.

Would you like to add anything else?
If you could please make sure that you post links to rape victim crisis centers and stuff like that, I would really appreciate it. I'm actually organizing an event on June 26th. I do a lot of charity work. I'm pretty well known in Salt Lake as a person for the activism that I do and the organizations I'm involved in. I'm making a Facebook event [with information] and including people I know. There's a lovely woman who is an instructor from a jiu-jitsu class who is going to come out and teach people. alt

For tips on how to prevent cyber bullying, please visit Stop Bullying. If you or someone you know has been the victim of a sexual assault, contact the nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization, RAINN. If you or someone you know has been falsely accused of sexual assault, please take a look at the information and advice given on HG.org.